Little Grebe - pair back on the lake performing trilling duet - this is about a month earlier than the last 2 years Reed Bunting - returning male singing
Yesterday in the garden. 1 ringed Starling...( thought it might have been a European ringed bird,but no!..ringed on Nov 19th 2016 at Orrell!,distance travelled 4km!!!). Also today near (i think its Cleives hill lane,Aughton 4 Waxwing) slightly out of area!!!.
(7:08 am), south west over lafford lane 1 Merlin. Garden Willow tit 4. School lane..Chaffinch 30+,Brambling 2 (fem). Fieldfare 300+ and Redwing 400+ south west.
Monday oct 31st. Swallow 1(south) at 11:27 am. wood pigeon 3,000+ (s). In the garden 4 willow tit's, 2 Greywag tail. Numerous Blackbird,Redwing and fieldfare. C snipe (sw). Tawny owl calling in the garden at 4:40 am.
Thursday october 27 th. A kingfisher on the concrete blocks in the water at the concourse in skelmersdale.. was a nice sighting today. Roby mill this am, 1 woodcock, numerous redwing, fieldfare south. A Raven over (sw), and a female merlin chased piedwag tails over lafford lane. A 1st win Greywag tail in the garden along with 3 willow tits. A starling in a flock of 100+ with white leg ring,black letters.. unable to read it yet..but keep trying.
7.30 patch Brambling 1 Chiffchaff 1 Teal 8 on the lake - I often see the odd ones on the lake - but a small flock (a Spring of Teal) seems to be sticking around this Autumn Pink-footed Goose 58 East Redwing c40 milling around
-- Edited by Phil Barnett on Thursday 20th of October 2016 10:49:44 AM
7.00 - 8.45 patch Jack Snipe 1 flushed from the lake edge Teal 5 on the lake Redwing c 1,500 south Fieldfare 120 s Siskin 2, Redpoll 2 Pink-footed Goose 75 s
-- Edited by Phil Barnett on Wednesday 12th of October 2016 10:23:43 AM
Patch 4.30 - 7.30 (s - singing) Spotted flycatcher 1 Garden warbler 1 (s) Grasshopper warbler 9 (s) Whitethroat 22 (s) Willow warbler 28 (s) Blackcap 7(s) no sedge warblers or Lesser whitethroats
The derelict farmland East of Mill Lane / Beacon Lane gets better every year as it get more overgrown - now fantastic habitat for Grasshopper warblers, Willow warblers, whitethroats
Using an app with GPS, I am mapping all the singing Warblers on the patch.Previous years counts for several species, were significant at a country level so I wanted to attempt to verify the numbers I had been getting and make sure I was over-counting.Far from over-counting however, it looks like I may been under-counting
Blackcap map attached (24 singing males) - this isn't the final assessment however, I'll probably find some more, but on the other hand I'll probably fail to re-find some of these
also Reed bunting 4 (s) Lesser Redpoll 2 Willow tit 1
-- Edited by Phil Barnett on Thursday 5th of May 2016 09:13:21 AM
Few swallow's and House martin north this afternoon. In the garden nuthatch,Bullfinch,siskin,Goldfinch two pairs Blue tit nest building; male House sparrow in nest box. c buzzard and Sparrowhawk over.
-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Tuesday 19th of April 2016 04:28:11 PM
Patch 6.30 Grasshopper Warbler - 2 reeling Kestrel - 1 Stock dove - 1 Teal - a pair on the lake Tufted duck - a pair on the lake Dabchick - pair Siskin - male display flight - something I've seen quite a lot recently Redpoll - 2 over (+2 on niger feeder) Yellowhammer - 2 singing Willow warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Swallow x3 Willow tit etc
yesterday Chiffchaff - 22 singing
-- Edited by Phil Barnett on Friday 15th of April 2016 08:41:28 AM
7:20 am. Redstart 1-m , knowles farm. +chiffchaff 5,Willow warbler 7 and Blackcap 3-m. Garden 2 Willow tit. Also Walthew green 3 yaffle's Green woodpecker..(also heard same area on monday).
-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Thursday 14th of April 2016 08:25:03 AM
6.00 patch (s - singing) Chiffchaff - 27 (s) Willow Warbler 15 (s) A lot of the 'new' warblers were concentrated near the beacon suggesting a fall of migrants rather than, necessarily, returning breeding birds. Blackcap 3 (s) Little grebe 2 Siskin 2 (s) Linnet flock of 25 Red-legged Partridge 2 Buzzard 2 Pied wagtail - male back at college farm
7:15 am..1(singing)+1 willow tit scrub bushes at the front of the house;quick dash through to rear and 4 in the garden on sunflower feeder and bird table. Also over (east at 6:50 am 3 c crossbill(calling). Nuthatch,Great Spotted Woodpecker, siskin 2 in /around the garden. skylark singing school lane.
6.30 patch Shelduck 1 over flying east Little grebe - pair back at the lake - trilling duet Chiffchaff - 15 (singing) Willow warbler - 5 (singing) Blackcap - 1 (singing) Meadow pipit - 30 north
-- Edited by Phil Barnett on Wednesday 6th of April 2016 08:36:57 AM
6.30 patch Chiffchaff - 17 singing (it was 8th April last year before these numbers were noted singing - so much earlier arrival 'in force') Goosander - 1 Willow Tit - 1 singing
-- Edited by Phil Barnett on Wednesday 30th of March 2016 10:21:01 AM
Garden.. Willow tit 4, Siskin m-8,f-4. Nuthatch 2, Great Spotted Woodpecker 2. Nice to hear Green Woodpecker around again,its years since they bred at the old brick works/Holland hall area of Lafford lane... nice one!!!.
-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Thursday 24th of March 2016 03:26:01 PM
6.00 patch Green Woodpecker - repeatedly yaffling - a nice patch first Shoveler - pair on the lake Chiffchaff - 2 singing Willow tit 1 A few 'alba' wagtails and meadow pipits north
-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Thursday 24th of March 2016 09:09:41 AM
Garden today 4 Willow tits and 2 siskin also pair of Goldcrest. At knowles farm a singing Blackcap. on the golf course 2 Jack snipe. This evening 3 roding +2 other Woodcock over/around the village.
Patch 6.30 Goosander 1 Teal 2 Tufted Duck 3 Barn Owl 2 Siskin 1 (also in in the garden)
Song Thrush 13 singing last year I estimated a patch population 25 pairs - this is a high figure given other counts in the Lancs Bird reports and published data of breeding densities
They should be fairly easy to survey - the song is loud, they sing together at dawn, and the position song post(s) is fairly stable
- on the other hand, beacuse the song is far carrying, can I be sure that the bird I heard on my left is the same as that which I'm now hearing on my right, later in my walk.
- also did I double count when adding together counts from different part of the patch?
The best way to get an idea of the accuracy of my, last year's, count (and hopefully callibate the accuracy of my other species counts) is to map the singing males.
Using an app with GPS make this fairly easy
Attached is my song thrush mapping from this morning - 13 singing males - the coverage is about 50% of the patch - I will fill in the missing parts of the patch subsequently
7:46 am..Peregrine over Lafford lane..chasing jackdaw's and wood pigeons.. Garden 5 Willow Tits..(seem to like feeding in the honey suckle..8 foot from the house)..